Chagrin
by GamerLUPO
Summary: The one time she decides to be a good sport and actually display even a smidgeon of humility, it goes and backfires right into her faceplate. Cover art by Guavi.


**Fan fiction**: Portal

**Title:** Chagrin

**Summary: **The one time she decides to be a good sport and actually display even a smidgeon of humility, it goes and backfires right into her faceplate.

**Chagrin**

"Life signs reaching critical! Subject expiration imminent!"

The cheery voice of the mechanical announcer did nothing to assuage the matters as alarms wailed loudly throughout the facility. The two testing associates, dubbed "Atlas" and "P-Body", were recalled from their current testing progress and were summoned back to the main chamber, waiting nervously for further instructions.

It was the human, the former test subject.

They watched in fearful silence as their queen scanned over the material being displayed over her monitors.

From the camera hidden within the weighted companion cube, the self-appointed queen of Aperture watched as the test subject lay face down, broken and bleeding out on the ground. She was sure if the test subject had the appropriate protocol she would be screaming in unadulterated agony.

In an attempt to keep the handful of humans she had found alive, the lunatic threw herself and her weighted companion cube onto a misleading landmine that was left from the combine attack. It was likely dismissed as a dud, when in fact it was a delayed detonation, brought about when one opposing male was challenging the mute lunatic and nearly trampled directly onto the well camouflaged device.

The woman had saved them. It was undeserving, considering the open hostility the small group had displayed towards the test subject (if past recording were any indication), but she had saved them.

And they had left her there.

In a panic, they scrambled and abandoned their makeshift little camp and left the test subject there to die, miserably and pathetically alone.

And all of this unfolded right before her very optic as she filtered in the live feed form the camera. The Genetic Life form and Disk Operating System took in the feed and scanned any and all available data to store for processing at a later date.

The test subject had lost her entire right arm in the detonation, a single jagged edge of bone protruding obscenely from where it was once connected to the joint. Both of her legs and the majority of her lower extremities were crudely mangled and effectively obliterated, leaving the rest of her body scrapped, bruised and bleeding as she lay face down in the dirt she had been left in.

Once the destruction cloud had dispersed, the first thing the AI could see was that the right half of the test subjects face was destroyed, with her head partially stuck in the ground as if she were a human stepping stone. Had it not been for the humans' good judgment to use the weighted companion cube as a shield she would have perished instantaneously.

Snapping out of her horrified stupor, GLaDOS dispatched Atlas and P-Body on a mission to retrieve what was left of the test subject and were to bring her back to the facility, equipping them with medical instruments and machines akin to those used in ambulances.

She prepared an operating table and waited for their return, monitoring their progress via wireless networkings. The queen of Aperture was no stranger to gore and violence. Many times she had watched as test subject after test subject met their demise at the mercy of the testing tracks.

One miscalculation and they were sent careening through a portal at a high velocity, only to be literally splattered all over the white walls of the facility like bugs hitting the windshield of a speeding car. Death was a natural occurrence when the construct was around.

However, seeing the former test subject being placed onto the cold steel table as Atlas and P-Body returned, having been reduced to a barely breathing meaty stump of her former human self (she was considering giving them both fifty science points for a passable job but decided against it, remembering their human behavior.), caused an uncomfortable fluctuation to surge through her core. She likened it to human nausea, though being likened to anything that the AI felt was beneath her would normally call for a scoff, this time seemed to be an exception.

And the worried chatter of her "conscience" was no help either, sounding nearly on the brink of hysteria until GLaDOS effectively silenced her by forcing her "conscience" into the farthest corner of her mind. She was never able to fully purge the little woman from her core, like a stubborn program that kept writing itself into the save feature, rendering deletion impossible.

It didn't take long for the AI to map out her plan to save the humans life, though she couldn't help the indignant scoff as she realized the irony of it all.

"_Looks like you'll be getting that experimental medical procedure after"_, she tittered to herself.

The test subjects' shallow breathing suddenly sounded choked and strained. The arch of her throat began to convulse and her chest was jerking about violently. The AI figured she was going into shock and began inserting an IV into her arm and attaching heart monitors to her chest.

With a pitiful gurgle, the test subjects' upper body pitched upward slightly as she retched out a dark red thick clot from her throat. It slid from the corner of her mouth and fell onto the table with a moist plop, leaving a bloody trail in its wake.

As her vitals began to stabilize, GLaDOS examined the clot with a careful claw. It was the size of a fifty cent piece and was quite heavy. She feared the human may have actually coughed up a piece of her own heart had it not been showing a shaky but steady beat on the monitors.

Upon further examination, the huge blood clot was not what it appeared to be. Manipulating her mechanical claw, the AI split the red viscous substance apart to reveal a small black microchip that was half the size of a postage stamp. To the untrained eye, it looked like a tracking device but GLaDOS knew it for what it was.

It was a vocal discouraging device. Its purpose was to cancel out the neural pathways between the speech control part of her brain to the voice box, stifling the neurons and blocking the body's' messages to speak. It was still in its experimental stage, a crude beta that was never tested completely. Though her records showed no blue prints for such a device, the documents of a proposal were there in her records. However, a very miniscule asterisk was present on the document. Putting two and two together (in base four), she deduced this was an "experiment" meant exclusively for this little maniac. Being the tenacious beast that she was, it was almost no surprise to the AI.

Almost.

'_Well…it looks like you weren't the ONLY one the scientists forced to behave.'_ The voice of Caroline spoke remorsefully.

With a despondent mechanical sigh, the queen of Aperture silently set to work on her test subjects' repairs and modifications, unable to help the feeling she was reliving the subjugation she was forced to endure…only she was no longer alone in that department.

"Damn them all…"

**-End**

**A/N:** Well! This was a nice reprieve from my recovering writers' block. I freaking LOVE Portal! Came into the series late in the game but still Love it! This idea had been in my head since I did research on Chell and GLaDOS. If anybody can do anything else with this (sort of) theme, just PM me. I'd love to help get more Portal fan fiction out there! ^_^

Also, to my BTB readers don't worry! I haven't forgotten you guys! It's nearly complete! I'm more than halfway to finishing the document so be a little more patient with me please! I just needed to get this outta my head so I can complete the other half. u

As always, reviews, rants, criticism (constructive) are welcome. Especially the constructive criticism. I ain't the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to scientific slang or highly complicated words (yes, the "ain't" was intentional though), plus I've played Portal 2 but not the first one (anybody know where I can get the Orange box?) so any and all tips and facts are more than welcome!

Thanks! :D


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